Had to research the purchase date of the case of organic pumpkin puree I found on a basement shelf – two years ago and still in code (like that’s ever a factor). At that time I was thinking of making dog food since it’s so healthy. Yup, see how that turned out. Paid a quarter a can for pumpkin, 50¢ clearance 5 lb bags of flour from Jewel (when they clear out their odd name brands, stock up), sweetened with raw sugar from DT and clearance Torani pumpkin spice syrup plus cinnamon and other spices tossed in. Major cost was four expensive eggs since I won’t buy cheap deals any more. Added most of a bag of Craisins in place of nuts although both were available.
I really am a crap photographer, ’cause it looks (and tastes) way more appetizing in person. Gonna wrap one loaf to freeze.
I may make it. What is your recipe?
Happy New Year!!!
Okay, an exact recipe would be nice to follow, but that’s not how my brain works. This is basically a banana bread recipe I Frankensteined. Each loaf used:
2 cups regular, all-purpose flour, none of that fancy-ass stuff
1 can pumpkin puree
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar (plus Torani pumpkin spice syrup because plain pumpkin is not sweet)
1 tsp baking soda – don’t use the box that deodorizes the fridge 🙂
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk (1/2 & 1/2) if batter is too dry
Thrown-in spices included cinnamon & Chinese 5 spice while my vanilla hand was rather heavy. I tossed in Craisins just ’cause, but raisins, nuts or any dried fruit would be wonderful additions as well. Using fresh fruit will make a wetter batter, so you’ll need more flour (or less milk) or wind up with the dreaded SOGGY BOTTOM!
Recipe said to hand mix in bowl, but that’s just nuts. Throw the softened butter (nuke if you need to) & sugar into a stand mixer and cream together, then add eggs & vanilla. Make sure it’s low speed (don’t ask) then add pumpkin, salt & soda so it’s all blended before adding flour, bit by bit. I added Craisins at the end on a very low speed so they’d just blend in. Grease a loaf pan bottom and pour in – that’s it.
Oven was 350, but I did NOT wait the full preheating time – put loaves in & went to Aldi – so it took about 90 minutes at least to bake, but the house smelled great & the kitchen was nice & toasty so who cares? Pull out & check the middle after an hour to see if the batter is cooked. I used the instant read thermometer stick ’cause I’m lazy & it’s easy.
I put the second loaf in the freezer & just finished off the last piece of the first for breakfast. Nuked with butter on top – yum!! And I repeat, it looked waaay better on the counter than in the photo – I truly suck at pix. Well, except for cats & how could you screw up cat pix?